traditional face classic

6:22 PM A: you know these cbc budget cuts?

I don't care.

B: no?
A: no...

and it's not difficult to explain

6:23 PM I'm really sorry that a lot of people are out going to be out of work, particularly in jurisdictions like the maritimes that have small newsrooms as it is

but when I looked at the cuts

they're still keeping stuff like "wild roses" and "the border"

and

6:24 PM basically

B: yeah,

the cbc is going commercial

of course

that's what i hate

A: maintaining the directive of competing with private networks

B: but i just don't want them to cut

A: which is not the cbc

B: radio 3

and shit like that

which is being considered

A: I bet it is

because the cbc is not what it was

it's not cbc anymore

6:25 PM B: well,

on the radio it is...

largely

it's the radio side of things

that i'm more concerned about

A: I really think people who say it's the jewel of canada are just being nostalgic

well, I don't know if you remember

but back in september

they took radio two

6:26 PM from an exclusively classical and jazz station

to something to compete with private networks

and when they do so

they're no providing the content we believe, out of habit, that they providing

ie

B: yeah

well

nothing is the same

A: unique, intelligent, and nationally-reflective

B: as it used to be

canada is not

nothing is

6:27 PM but i will

involve myself in the occasional

symbolic gesture

which allows my voice to be heard in some small way

to symbolize

my discontent

A: such as?

B: such as complaining about cbc budget cuts

6:28 PM i know very well that the cbc is not what it used to be

they have fucking wheel of fortune

on tv now

but my bottom line is that

A: (like, clearly, the cuts are happening in the wrong places. but they're being used to supplement the same shit. the cbc has to change. it has nothing to do with the current government; this has been unfolding for years)

yeah, exactly

6:29 PM B: what is that?

(_______ ) ?

A: hmm? like a turn down commericial road?

B: no, i meant

6:30 PM why did you write that in brackets?

A: because it felt like an afterthought

B: but man, it DOES have something to do with the current governement

just as it did the liberals

and mulroney before

it has to do with certain fundamental

or what once were

canadian values

6:31 PM which cannot be sustained under economically neo-conservative governments

decades of cuts in every sector

lead to depletion in cultural

arenas

in canada

and man....

cbc radio three has been

6:32 PM AN AMAZING

way for independent canadian artists to be exposed

anyways...

i'm not gonna scream about it

i know that the cbc is fucked

but it is still upsetting to me

6:33 PM A: yeah, well it is upsetting

I would listen to radio two day-in

and now I turn it off every day at 3pm

before buck 65 pollutes my living space

6:34 PM but I'm not sure I'm with you on the connection between eroding values and conversative trends

6:35 PM the cbc has a tendency to hire outside leadership

they want to make a profit

6:36 PM I don't think you could say that new the bbc has thrived when they're governments have necessary taken write turns in the past decade (think "new labour")

they survive because of different funding

and a commitment to original content

6:37 PM the cbc seems to want to take ANYTHING and put a made in canada stamp on it

6:38 PM the fact is, the incursion of US network programming shouldn't affect the orgnaization, because poeple should be able to take refuge there

instead they've tried to compete

and they lost.

and maybe, at rock bottom, they'll sort this out

6:39 PM B: yeah well, this is exactly what i wish wasn't happening

A: the fucking heritage minister said as much

B: obviously

you are suggesting

A: well, not that, but that a better system could be implemented on another model

B: no shit

6:40 PM anyways, i think that there are things worth salvaging even in the recent years of the cbc

which haven't been

like the show 'play'

like the different documentary programs on newsworld

6:41 PM most of which just show commercial garbage now

i mean,

obviously i know that the network is going to go in the direction its going to go in, anyways

because the execs

don't care

about preserving those things

have been unique about the cbc

but the reason, one might say,

6:42 PM that the cuts could be protested

has to do with the fact that the harper gov't

is bailing out canwest

etc

and the fact that we have a government which is willing to do that and not help the cbc

6:43 PM suggests the reality of a political environment which supports networks which draw their audience

from the mainstream and commercial

6:44 PM a political environment in which it makes sense for the cbc to become more commercial and lame and stupid because that seems to be the direction in which the mainstream audience wishes to go

and which therefore the body politic

will defend

in the name of being populistic

A: that's interesting

6:45 PM I would have said that it follows

B: populism kills democracy

period

A: that in the desire t promote competition

B: tyranny of the majority

A: they woudl do so

would do so

you know

6:46 PM I sometimes think that "canadian values" are defined by intellegentsia

and sometimes that they belong only to independent communities

6:47 PM B: yes, well,

A: and it leads me to think that

in some cases

B: i honestly think that this is a just reality...

for canadian values to stem from an elite class...

because this class of 'elites'

A: the people who incubate these values with their lives are not considered canadians in their values and consumption habits

B: provide the only opportunity for the defending of

minority opinion

6:48 PM which is the most interesting and vibrant source of cultural strength

in this country at least

almost every truly democratic political act, in my opinion, involved forsightedness...

in the sense that, for example,

6:49 PM years ago the majority of canadians would not have been in favour of a woman's right to choose

it was an ELITE opinion

held by those who had it

A: right

B: but in order to protect the rights of a minority

and to allow canada to maintain its reality

6:50 PM as a (at least in terms of legalities and human rights)

progressive nation

there needs to be an elite class

of individuals

who are able to fight for the rights of marginalized canadians

6:51 PM and take political action that is not in the least populistic

avoiding a tyranny of the majority

and, for example,

the idea that senators should be elected is trite...

6:52 PM senators should be there to represent the rights of canadians whos rights may otherwise fall to the wayside in light of the strength of the majority

and if canadians elected senators

they would be representing the majority of canadians

6:53 PM and therefore not fulfilling their obligation to defend the charter and use it to help disadvantaged canadians

so, for example,

6:54 PM pierre trudeau was certainly an intellectual elitist.... he was not an average canadian. he came from a position of privilege and used that position to open the country to a kind of (potential, not actualized) diversity....

and...

point being....

YES, canadian culture at its best

comes from an elite group of people

6:55 PM and this is how an independence in canadian thought can be preserved

and also how the rights of less privileged canadians can be defended

and the vital existence of our cultural institutions

A: it at least is constituted by an elite

6:56 PM B: of which the cbc has traditionally been one of those institutions..

i mean, really..

A: or, in some instances, a creative class

B: there most certainly is a connection between

A: this is nuance

B: the harper gov't

and the state of the cbc

A: and cultural erosion, yes

B: the cbc does not function in a vacume

A: but I think the cbc's problems are insidious

6:57 PM you can't liken it to

as I heard today

the closure of the museum of contemporary photography in ottawa

or even the fabled national portrait gallery which harper wanted to build in calgary or, apparently, not build at all

6:58 PM B: obviously the cbc are doing most of this to themselves,

yes,

but what i mean is

6:59 PM that if the elite class of culture-bearing canadians had not been forced to the sidelines by decades of cultural erosion... the cbc would not be justified in ruining what it used to be, in defaming its own spirit

7:00 PM and no, i don't think that it's the beacon of canadian culture or anything

or that it ever has been

but i mean

look at cbc archives

on the website

and the extent to which there used to be such a vastly more discernable canadian culture

7:01 PM which the cbc was on the pulse of

i lament the cuts not because i think that the cbc is doing a good job and shouldn't have to do this

i lament the cuts because the are indicative of an outward reality

7:02 PM A: indeed

above all

B: yes

A: the cbc

was

7:03 PM that unifying culture element

that maintain an edge of intelligence

you could argue

that because canadian culture is necessarily a feeble idea

7:04 PM a weakened cbc is a weakened canada

7:05 PM B: yes, we have lost our sense of order....

7:06 PM the sense that we were a more civilized and intellectual and ordered society than those worshipers of 'freedom,' the americans

our conservatism

and our socialism,

in days of old

gave canada its unifying strength, i do think

7:07 PM but now conservatism is modern and american

and a social democrat in canada

is the equilvalent of a liberal democrat

from the states

man, i'm such a weiner

Univeristy of Fredericton

There is indeed such a place. Based out suite 101, 371 Queen Street, the University of Fredericton's programme's are nonetheless administered entirely online. They seem particularly enthusiastic about their Executive Masters In Business Administration. An MBA is a popular degree, particularly for its networking opportunities, so this is understandable. But, you ask, this is a correspondence program. And, the minimum GPA is 2.5 our of 4. And, tuition for this programme is $24,000.

Their slogan, as you'll see, is "Accessible. Affordable. Accredited."
Yes, we were curious.

this month's edition, hot off the press

Just thought I would post this post-produced news feed from the forerunners of grassroots media, volunteer radio-style.

This month's edition of Groundwire.

Woodlot trumps Woodside: Costco poll favours new location

An online poll initiated last week by Fredericton Mayor Brad Woodside and circulated on Facebook produced some unexpected results. Pushed primarily through a Facebook group set up to gauge public sentiment toward a Costco on the UNB woodlot, the poll initially favoured the proposed location. The group was overwhelmingly visited by consumers, most largely indifferent to economic or environmental impact. The poll then swung from an enormous lead to favour a Costco at another location. This seemed to test the patience of organizers, who wrote

It was taken down when it was brought to my attention that the same response was repeatly (sic) being selected. The poll registered more than 300 votes for "Not in the woodlot" in less than 15 minutes.

A response repeatedly selected is something that generally happens when people vote, Mayor Woodside.

But regardless, a mobilized opposition should do nothing to effect the validity of the result; the fact (we're speculating here) that the folks at Woodlot Watch may have turned the tables by soliciting votes on their mailing list should not nullify it. If the poll was technically flawed, it was probably being exploited by both sides. The City, it seems, thinks undesired results are not a results.

UNB Woodlot: Costco Poll

A poll that appears to have been informally organized by the city of Fredericton is circulating on Facebook.

A Facebook group called Costco for Fredericton is inviting feedback on its wall and forum and asks that people take time to vote here. It would appear that they're encouraging readers to vote yes to Costco.

We encourage you to vote no.
And, to do so as many times as you like.

Arresting Exodus

New Brunswick faces many long term economic problems, the greatest being changing demographics and the decline of the population. The average age of New Brunswickers has increased by five years in the last ten: from 35 to 40 between 1997 and 2007. The birth rate in New Brunswick is less than half of what it was 1960 and more than half of the babies born in New Brunswick leave the province permanently (a rate much higher among university graduates), while more than half of those immigrating to New Brunswick from other provinces and other parts of the world are retirees (GNB Department of Finance, 2008). Consensus among economists is that this trend will bankrupt the province by 2020 if nothing is done.

The result is a ticking time bomb, where New Brunswick will not have enough productive workers paying income taxes to pay for students and retirees. These demographics benefit most from health care and education, which together cost roughly 3 billion of New Brunswick's 6 billion provincial budget.

Retaining students with Post-Secondary is essential as they constitute 1/6th of the population while making up 40% of the tax base. For the $50,000 cost of educating a university graduate the government gets back about $500,000 in the form of income taxes.

There is no question that the disproportionately high levels of tuition fees and student debt in NB compared with the rest of Canada are driving university grads away to jurisdictions with higher income earning potential. Even premier Shawn Graham admitted this in his 2008 state of the province address.

Ireland, 15 years ago, was in the same demographic and economic tailspin that the Maritimes are currently experiencing. Now they're known as the Celtic Tiger for their astounding economic turnaround. How did they do it, you ask? By eliminating tuition fees, focusing on retaining university graduates and using this demographic as an engine for economic growth.

Eliminating tuition will make the province richer, but only if we bite the bullet and invest in retaining university grads in New Brunswick in order to turn their newly acquired skills and knowledge into productive capacity.

Chuck Fournier

John Thompson for Poet Laureate

John Thompson - master of the Persian stanza form known as the 'ghazal,' was a Sackville poet who influenced a whole generation of Canadian writers: notably Michael Ondaatje and his contemporaries. While Thompson's poems are usually not noted as being ones that deal distinctly with the New Brunswick landscape and New Brunswick culture (and therefore often more overlooked within New Brunswick literary circles than the works of authors like Alden Nowlan and David Adams Richards), his poems are among the best and the most internationally anthologized of Canadian poetry. Thompson's works, emerging from the burgeoning postmodern context of the 60's and 70's, should be read always by students of Canadian Lit alongside novels such as Beautiful Losers, and the early poems of Ondaatje, Atwood, and Purdy. Thompson's lyrical voice, with so many divergent cross-cultural influences, along with his interesting and tragic history should make him a Canadian (and of course New Brunswickan) historical literary figure of infinite interest... and I nominate him for naked east's New Brunswick Poet Laureate!

Submitted by Cameron MacLean.

Please note: naked east is compiling, alongside current nominations, a list of posthumous PL's.
Nominate accordingly!

Naked East Radio

Tonight.
11:00pm Atlantic.
CHSR FM.
At best.

Could be a rerun.

If not, then possibly dead air.

Woodlot: Court Appearance and Opposition Deadline

On Monday morning, activist Mark D'arcy appeared in the Fredericton provincial courthouse filing private charges against RAR Properties for allegedly filling a regent street wetland, located on the UNB woodlot.

The case was delayed until March 23 because, according to reports, the lawyer for RAR properties argued that documents filed stated that the alleged events took place in Fredericton, but not Fredericton, New Brunswick. Patrick Hurley, RAR's representative, effectively objected on grounds that the charges stemmed from allegations that may have taken place in another Fredericton. Or, by extension, the other Fredericton: a rural Prince Edward Island community.

--The deadline for public objection to the encroachment of a gas bar on the Corbett Brook marsh looms at February 26. Contact Jaques Whitford at mary.murdoch@jaqueswhitford.com.

--The deadline for public objection to the development of a Costco on the UNB woodlot approaches at March 9. Send objections to cityclerk@fredericton.ca

UNB Woodlot: Developments

'On Monday, February 16th at 9:30 AM, a concerned Fredericton citizen will be continuing his private prosecution in Fredericton Provincial Court against RAR Properties Inc. for the infilling of Regent Street Bog last summer. A total of four (4) charges are expected to be read by Judge Graydon Nicholas to RAR Properties Inc.

Mark D'Arcy of Fredericton, New Brunswick, says that he had no option but to go to Provincial Court.

"After considerable media attention last summer, and after personal pleas to Attorney General T.J. Burke of New Brunswick, and Environment Minister Roland Haché to intervene and enforce the Order in Council and our environmental legislation that protect this wetland, the infilling of Regent Street Bog went unchallenged by the Province of New Brunswick."

"Too many groups and government departments have worked to protect and preserve this beautiful ecosystem", says Mark D'Arcy. "The special legal protection afforded this Provincially Significant Wetland was the result of numerous studies by botany and wildlife scientists and organizations, Environment Canada, NB Department of Environment, and NB Department of Natural Resources."

Wetlands comprise only 4% of the land coverage in New Brunswick. They are very critical pieces of our environment, our wildlife habitat, and our flood control. The Regent Street Bog is the headwater to the large Corbett Brook Marsh, part of Fredericton's watershed that covers the huge forested wetlands of the UNB Woodlot Forest.

"All homeowners in downtown valley of southside Fredericton should be very concerned what happens to these wetlands at the top of the hill," says D'Arcy. "These wetlands are our insurance policy against the severe rain events and increased winter runoff due to climate change. Without forested wetlands working as natural sponges, rainwater capture and run-off control will be seriously compromised. Taxpayers should not have to pay for any attempt to replace the natural function of these wetlands with manmade pipe and retention pond infrastructure. And since an acre of forested wetland can absorb a million to a million-and-a-half gallons of rainwater, no amount of tax dollars can replace what nature is now doing for free."

"If we lose Regent Street Bog, officially designated a Provincially Significant Wetland, the other wetlands in the UNB Woodlot Forest don't stand a chance.", concludes D'Arcy.'

Courtesy of Woodlot Watch

Matt Abbot for UNB Student Union President

Because if you haven't heard, a group calling itself 'United for Change' is running a slate of candidates in UNB Student Union elections, to be held between February 22 and 27. Read more about the candidates on their website and vote if you're able to. Matt Abbot!

tune in

to those (slightly decrepit) radio waves
CHSR 97.9 / chsrfm.ca
tonight,
well
just slightly more than an hour from now

for a dose of Beirut (New Mexico, not Lebanon)
Bonnie 'Prince'
CocoRosie
Man Man
and a variety of spectacular "hits"

plus the meaning of acorns,
and words on the weathered why.

Tantramar Revisted: week in review.

Our week begins and ends with the last post from naked east radio at 1:00AM Atlantic, CHSR FM.
Our week in review, therefore, begins Friday.

And Friday began with a bit of news and commentary. A wonderful reflexive piece by Maggie went up Sunday about the lives lived by her cat, terse and semi-fictionalized. Monday night Chuck came over and we walked through Westmount. I thought of trying to explain my feelings about living away from home but decided we'd already seen that conversation through. Instead we walked silently to the St-Marc lookout and stared across the south island.
Tuesday Mike allowed us use of his fantastic photo essay on a day in the life of Fredericton minor celebrity and blogger Charles Leblanc. Charles appreciated it and so did we. We registered 87 hits and 132 page views Tuesday alone.
Then, on Wednesday, a great piece from Marg, a Fredericton writer from St. Andrews, which proved to be, if I may say so, without inundating you completely with commas, a chilling reflection of the development of small-town homicidals and the plenitude of unacknowledged warnings. I once heard that Gregory Allen Despres spent hours locked in the bathroom talking to himself in the mirror in the years before he decapitated an elderly Minto couple.
I spent this afternoon laid out by the window on the second floor of the Atwater library. I read for the first time Charles G.D. Roberts' Tantramar Revisted and was stunned. Because so much of what naked east hopes to do is foster a literary voice for New Brunswick, it is incredible to find antecedent works of striking beauty and depth. It was sobering to realize I was encountering this poem for the first time.

Keep watch for a radio preview. Or just tune in tonight at 11:00PM on CHSR. Bye for now.

Charlie & me

Picture-taker Michael Woodside documents a day with Fredericton BLOGGER and ADHD activist Charles LeBlanc.

Good News For a Change

The good news is, this probably didn't cost one million dollars.

The bad news is it probably cost more than $15000.
That, and it's a poor substitute for effective health policy.

In spite of its warnings, aimed at children, of a critical state of "wellness", the site is nevertheless predicated on the notion of elective health. This initiative is equally frivolous and insulting.

So once again, the New Brunswick ladies who brought you Vivacious Curves. In the words of Cendrars, here's to our true ambassadors.
Photo www.vivaciouscurves.com

Radio Naked East Preview 02-05-09.

Remember to tune in, as always, and spend some time with Zach on CHSR 97.9 FM. The show starts at 11pm EST. We're holding out for a preview playist, but you never know.

--

If you're listening, you're hearing Johann Johannsson's Fordlandia in entirety, as well as your friend Zach, and your friend Micah too. And Moldy Max, the Agony of Leaves.

The Aquinian: was's and wasn'ts

In the Fall of 2005 the Fredericton student media received an unexpected jolt.

The St. Thomas Aquinian, coming off a banner year (2004-05) under Editor Miriam Christensen, had undergone pivotal changes in format and direction, faced threats and made national headlines.

It had taken off under past sub-editor Justin Sadler in what was very likely its best year of production, ever. The Aquinian was sound but provocative, stern yet comic. It seemed to believe in journalistic standards and the agenda particular to student newspapers. It came under fire and made questionable decisions, but people read it.

It was in under these circumstances that a weblog, written anonymously,began to cause a stir. The Aquinian: is's and isn'ts, hosted byblogger and penned by STUdissiDENT, attacked the Aquinian, its staff and writers in a pejorative, vulgar, weekly salvo throughout the eight-month school year. The blog was discussed between students, in classes and in the Aquinian, but mostly in the blog's comments section, a forum visited upon by a diverse sample of the student body. The Aquinian rounded out the year having received more attention from the student body on a consistent basis than it ever had. The blog had something to do with it; "It's dialogue, and that's awesome," Sadler once said. But he knew that the interest in the blog, and the reasons why the blog existed, had more to do with the quality of the newspaper and the attention it was getting. It was doing what a student newspaper was supposed to do.

The irony of the blog and its timing wasn't lost on those who remembered it the following year. Under editor Kate Wright, the paper aspired to take what one editor called "a more serious approach," an attempt to be "more like a real newspaper."
Rather than staking out the fox hole from which the agenda of a progressive and daring publication had been pushed, the Aquinian of 2006-07 retreated into reliable and safe formulas. In the following two years the paper was reverted from a highly stylized tabloid to a poorly considered broadsheet with a quiet logo and photo covers that gave scant indication of contents. The editorial board swelled from 5 editors in 2005 to 9 in 2009 (including, inexplicably, an "International Editor"), but the paper remains stuck between the conflicting agendas of its predecessors. And, as one St. Thomas student recently observed, "No one reads it."


Newspaper is a verb, a mutable construction whose face changes with the faces that occupy it. The direction of ownership and editors inflect the direction of a newspaper and what it thinks and speaks. But a rotation of values is not a change of
purpose; the pivotal, definitive character of a newspaper that draws the like-minded to it. And for this reason, the failure of the Aquinian in recent years to uphold a previously achieved standard has little to do with its recent editors. A student paper is, after all, a playground for budding journalists, a place for
them to explore within the fenceposts of niche media. But if, in the process, they abandon what made the paper great, albeit controversial, the question becomes 'why'? Why change what works for the sake of change alone?

For whatever reason successful editors have been unable to hand-down a legacy. In every category, the only consistent thing about the paper is that it will be revamped every September. And the best explanation for this is that editors are inevitably hiring editors that resent the direction their forebearers steered their inheritance. If Kate Wright is to Justin Sadler as Rex Murphy is to Naomi Klein, why did he offer her his post and subsequently betray his vision? Rather than seeking successors who were drawn to the Aquinian because they liked it, the editors offered it up to qualified candidates who objected to the way it had been managed before. The proceeding generations, swept up in the tension of competing visions, knew that the paper would be ripe for plucking in the approaching term. Now new editors don't aspire to match a standard of quality; they desire to implement their vision.

I'm told the Aquinian sits untouched and swept around on the tables of James Dunn Hall and the George Martin Cafeteria at St. Thomas, as visually as it is spiritually amorphous. Students glance it over and dismiss it. They complain about advertising, but they don't think far past them. Dark ages precede renaissances, and romantic nostalgia follows salad days. Without doubt, one roll of the dice some September will cast the protean St. Thomas paper into form. And perhaps, if editors keep the student body in heart and mind, they'll know enough to ensure it stays the way they fought to make it.

Sight to behold

Officer's Square, Queen st. Monday, February 02, 2009, 12:37:50 PM

The City of Fredericton webcams. Mere moments in time, but familiar and comforting.

"Caribou Hunting in New Brunswick -- 'In at the Death,'" Anonymous, 1863. Published in the Illustrated London News, January 18, 1863.

Last Thursday night the Fredericton city council held and irregular meeting to correct elements of a bylaw debuted one week ago. It would allow parts of the UNB woodlot to be rezoned for development.

The reason for the emergency meeting was clear: there were errors on the woodlot map that required correction. The revised version, however, made some notable omissions.

According to an observer, the revised map does not include the Corbett brook area of the woodlot marsh that may be staked for development. Additionally a second wetland along Regent street is now coloured in. The map makes no allusion to buffer zones that would prevent the sedimentation and poisoning of these ecosystems.

Conservation efforts remain what they are, attempts to reverse the corrosion of natural spaces and their destruction for the sake of profit. A greater struggle, however, is against those that before signing the papers and turning the keys in bulldozer ignitions, cease to believe that these places exist.